Squeegee Beckenheim
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2010
- Messages
- 32,124
I used to know a few tricks but, while the “wow that was amazing!” reaction could be fun, I didn’t really like the whole dynamic and certainly didn’t think it worth the time and effort required. I might still have a gimmicked deck of cards somewhere that was very simple (every other card was identical and had slightly tapered edges) and which could be used for a surprisingly large number of tricks. I probably only used it twice, despite how good the reactions were.
Possibly the best and easiest one I know is one of those “only actually works 90% of the time” things.
Say you’re going to demonstrate something. Get a piece of paper, write something on it that nobody else can see. Fold it in half and give it to your subject to hold. Tell them that you’re going to ask them a series of questions and they have to answer as quickly as possible without thinking. You then ask “what’s 2+2?”, the instant they say “4” (even as they’re saying it) you ask “what’s 4 + 4?”, and keep going until about 16 + 16, whereupon you change to “name a vegetable”. 90% of the time they say “carrot”, and you get them to open the bit of paper on which you have indeed written “carrot”.
It’s stupid, but it does work. And it’s fun, because everybody knows how it must be done, but they’re still impressed. And, of course, the whole “rapid fire” thing means it has in-built excitement and tension, which gets the blood flowing.
Possibly the best and easiest one I know is one of those “only actually works 90% of the time” things.
Say you’re going to demonstrate something. Get a piece of paper, write something on it that nobody else can see. Fold it in half and give it to your subject to hold. Tell them that you’re going to ask them a series of questions and they have to answer as quickly as possible without thinking. You then ask “what’s 2+2?”, the instant they say “4” (even as they’re saying it) you ask “what’s 4 + 4?”, and keep going until about 16 + 16, whereupon you change to “name a vegetable”. 90% of the time they say “carrot”, and you get them to open the bit of paper on which you have indeed written “carrot”.
It’s stupid, but it does work. And it’s fun, because everybody knows how it must be done, but they’re still impressed. And, of course, the whole “rapid fire” thing means it has in-built excitement and tension, which gets the blood flowing.